Portugal
Arie Waarheid - 21.06.2002 00:50
Portuguese workers protest at austerity programme.
LISBON, 20 June 2002 - Thousands of Portuguese workers marched against the centre-right government´s austerity policies on Thursday.
Libson, 20 June 2002.
Prime Minister Jose Manuel Durao Barroso, slumping in polls after less than three months in office, said the nationwide demonstrations by the CGTP labour federation meant the Communist Party was trying to show that it still had popular backing. The CGTP is linked to the Communist Party.
The CGTP federation planned demonstrations in at least 30 cities against the belt-tightening programme that will lead to job cuts.
The prime minister, a Social Democrat, has launched a programme of wider privatisation, spending cuts and a hike in value-added tax to jump-start the lagging economy.
The government has said it will lay off about 5,000 short-term workers. Unions say the true figure is closer to 50,000.
Thousands of protesters packed central Lisbon streets as they marched to Durao Barroso´s residence. They chanted "decent pay, yes, low pay no."
"This is one of the demonstrations scheduled for the entire country to protest the government´s policies towards labour," Manuel Carvalho da Silva, head of the CGTP, told reporters at the march.
In another sign of discontent, the FESTRU truckers´ union began an open-ended strike over a wage dispute. A union spokesman said the stoppage was indirectly linked to the CGTP protests.
Durao Barroso has seen his popularity sink since elections in March swept out a Socialist government.
The Social Democrats would only get 33.5 percent of seats in parliament if elections were held today, compared with 43.1 percent for the Socialists, according to a Catholic University poll published in Publico newspaper on Thursday. (R)
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